English Heritage has launched a four year project aimed at conserving 95,000 of the oldest and most valuable photographs in the Aerofilms collection, those dating from 1919 to 1953.  Once conserved, they’ll be scanned into digital format and made available online for everyone to see.

The new Britain from Above website was launched in June 2012 with thousands of images online. The website will give users the opportunity to share and record  memories of the places shown and to help English Heritage identify some of the locations and buildings.

The project will finish at the end of 2014.

See: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/nmr/archives/photographs/aerofilms/ and http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

The Royal Astronomical Society has announced the death of Peter Hingley, the Librarian at its Burlington House headquarters. Peter had an extraordinary knowledge of historical astronomical documents and will be missed by all who knew him. Although not a photographic historian per se Hingley had a detailed knowledge of photography and how it related to astronomy (see: http://www.ras.org.uk/library/images) along with personalities who straddled both disciplines. He published and lectured on early photography and astronomy.

See: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/219-news-2012/2138-peter-hingley-1951-2012

The Ransom Center has appointed Jessica S. McDonald, a curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as its new chief curator of photography. McDonald begins her position at the Ransom Center in September.

As the Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography, McDonald will oversee a collection that spans from the world’s earliest-known photograph to prints from some of the great masters of the twenty-first century. The Center’s photography holdings include the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim collection, a seminal collection of the history of photography and one of the world’s premier sources for the study and appreciation of photography.

In addition to the history of photography, the Ransom Center’s photography collection focuses on photojournalism and documentary photography, with holdings of more than 5 million prints and negatives, supplemented by books, manuscripts, journals, and memorabilia of photographers.

“McDonald’s broad experiences —  from teaching to curatorial — confirmed that she can lead our photography department, build the collection, support research, and plan exhibitions,” said Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley. “The possibilities under her guidance are exciting.”

McDonald’s professional experience includes affiliations with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Visual Studies Workshop and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. In 2011, McDonald received an Ansel Adams Research Fellowship from the Center for Creative Photography.

McDonald recently curated the exhibition Photography in Mexico: Selected Works from the Collections of SFMOMA and Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauserand edited the anthology Nathan Lyons: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Interviews, which University of Texas Press published in June.

Image: Jessica S. McDonald. © Caren Alpert Photography.

The Royal Collection is advertising for two new positions within the photograph collection: a Cataloguer (2 year contract), and a paid Curatorial Intern position (9 months). Details are currently live on the British Monarchy website, and can be accessed via this link: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/about/working-for-us

The closing date for applications for both positions flexible.

Cataloguer

Location

Windsor Castle

Grade

24

Starting Salary

c. £19,436 per annum, plus benefits

Hours of work

35

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Position start date

10 Sep 2012

Position end date

9 Sep 2014

Curatorial Intern

Location

Windsor Castle

Starting Salary

£12,500.00 pro rata

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Position start date

8 Oct 2012

Position end date

6 Jul 2013

The British Library has secured the Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive which was offered to any United Kingdom institution under the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive is a significant addition to the Library’s collection and enhances and supports the 2006 donation of Talbot material by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown and other members of the Talbot Family Trust. The British Library has further enhanced its position as the leading centre for material relating to Talbot and his circle of early photographers.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive, approx 164 early photographic prints in 5 photograph albums (including W.H. Fox Talbot, High Street Oxford), 50 glass negatives, the memoirs and journals of Thereza Story-Maskelyne in 10 volumes (the memoirs including a further 52 early photographs), photographic research papers of Nevil Story-Maskelyne in 2 portfolios, and related albums and papers.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) initiated his first photographic experiments -- prompted by news of the activities of William Henry Fox Talbot (a cousin by marriage) -- at his house at Penlle’r-gaer (usually spelled Penllergare by the family), near Swansea, in February 1839, and daguerreotypes of his family and house survive from as early as the following year. He claimed (in a letter to Fox Talbot) to have been familiar with all the known photographic processes, and in 1856 announced his own innovation, the oxymel process, ‘a mixture of honey and vinegar, whereby the collodion plates of the period could be prepared some time before use and developed when the photographer returned home’ (ODNB). He was on the first council of the London Photographic Society, and was awarded a silver medal of honour at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 for his instantaneous photographs.

The photograph albums in the archive not only provide an important, family collection of some of Dillwyn Llewelyn’s best-known images, but also demonstrate the extent to which the whole Dillwyn Llewelyn family and its wider offshoots participated in the experiments, either as subjects or as photographers: amongst the identified images are photographs by his sister, Mary Dillwyn, his son-in-law, the mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne (grandson of the astronomer royal, whose photographs often depict the family house at Basset Down, Wiltshire), and at least three of his children.

Dillwyn Llewelyn’s daughter, Thereza Story-Maskelyne, was closely involved with his photographic activities, and was also an active amateur astronomer – both activities highly unusual for a woman of the period; she combined both fields in the pioneering telescopic photographs of the moon which she took with her father in the mid-1850s. Thereza’s memoirs and journals in the present archive are a rich source of information on her scientific career, and include not only an important series of photographic prints, but also her own watercolours of comets and other phenomena from the 1850s onwards.

The acquisition builds on an important earlier gift to the British Library of the work of Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823-1911), which included paper negatives, salted paper and albumen prints, collodion on mica negatives and research papers on early photography. The additional material now acquired – which includes a series of Story-Maskelyne’s wet collodion negatives, as well as prints and other papers – brings together the largest surviving archive of the work of an important- if undeservedly little-known - photographer. The journals of his wife Thereza contain many references to the photographic practises of the Llewelyn and Story-Maskelyne families and will form a rich primary resource for the study of this formative period of British photography.

Images: from top:

1. Portrait (self-portrait?) of Nevil Story-Maskelyne, late 1840s (reproduction from the original calotype negative.
   
   
2. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Thereza Llewelyn and dickies, mid-1850s (salted paper print).
   
   
3. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Gipsies – Palmistry, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print
   
   
4. John Dullwyn Llewelyn, Costume of Glamorganshire, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print).
   
   

Courtesy: John Falconer / British Library

The British Library has secured the Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive which was offered to any United Kingdom institution under the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme which enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax, or one of its earlier forms. The taxpayer is given the full open market value of the item, which is then allocated to a public museum, archive or library.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive is a significant addition to the Library’s collection and enhances and supports the 2006 donation of Talbot material by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown and other members of the Talbot Family Trust. The British Library has further enhanced its position as the leading centre for material relating to Talbot and his circle of early photographers.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Storey-Maskelyne photographic archive, approx 164 early photographic prints in 5 photograph albums (including W.H. Fox Talbot, High Street Oxford), 50 glass negatives, the memoirs and journals of Thereza Story-Maskelyne in 10 volumes (the memoirs including a further 52 early photographs), photographic research papers of Nevil Story-Maskelyne in 2 portfolios, and related albums and papers.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) initiated his first photographic experiments -- prompted by news of the activities of William Henry Fox Talbot (a cousin by marriage) -- at his house at Penlle’r-gaer (usually spelled Penllergare by the family), near Swansea, in February 1839, and daguerreotypes of his family and house survive from as early as the following year. He claimed (in a letter to Fox Talbot) to have been familiar with all the known photographic processes, and in 1856 announced his own innovation, the oxymel process, ‘a mixture of honey and vinegar, whereby the collodion plates of the period could be prepared some time before use and developed when the photographer returned home’ (ODNB). He was on the first council of the London Photographic Society, and was awarded a silver medal of honour at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 for his instantaneous photographs.

The photograph albums and negatives in the archive not only provide an important, family collection of some of Dillwyn Llewelyn’s best-known images, but also demonstrate the extent to which the whole Dillwyn Llewelyn family and its wider offshoots participated in the experiments,

either as subjects or as photographers: amongst the identified images are photographs by his sister, Mary Dillwyn, his son-in-law, the mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne (grandson of the astronomer royal, whose photographs often depict the family house at Basset Down, Wiltshire), and at least three of his children.

Dillwyn Llewelyn’s daughter, Thereza Story-Maskelyne, was closely involved with his photographic activities, and was also an active amateur astronomer – both activities highly unusual for a woman of the period; she combined both fields in the pioneering telescopic photographs of the moon which she took with her father in the mid-1850s. Thereza’s memoirs and journals in the present archive are a rich source of information on her scientific career, and include not only an important series of photographic prints, but also her own watercolours of comets and other phenomena from the 1850s onwards.

No wish or condition as to the permanent allocation of the photographic material had been expressed by the offerors.

Alfred Maudslay, Photography and the Mimetic Technologies of Archaeology: A Study in Method, Process and Effect / Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester/ British Museum, London. An AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award studentship, starting October 2012,  covering stipend and tuition fee costs is offered within the Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) in the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities in collaboration with the British Museum.

The project addresses the practices of photography in relation to the task of documentation and recording in the field of Maya archaeology in the late 19th Century. Its focus is a series of 1513 photographs made by Alfred Maudslay in Mexico and Guatemala for thirteen years between 1881 and 1894, notably at Copán, Palenque, and Yaxchilán. The project will explore the ways in which Maudslay used photography to constitute the qualities of archaeological objectivity and observation, in the production of 'evidence' and archaeological knowledge. It will also explore how the established truth values of this mimetic technology were employed to fuel the burgeoning public interest in ancient archaeological sites and civilisations, establishing a broader visual rhetoric for the 'uncovering' of the Maya past. The project will also explore the methodological implications for a ‘photographic history’ approach to collections and institutions.

The focus will be on the British Museum’s outstanding collection of negatives, casts and paper squeezes made by Maudslay. The PhD studentship will be based at DMU’s  Photographic History Research Centre  (PHRC) within the Faculty of Art Design and Humanities. PHRC undertakes innovative research on photography and its practices from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and over a wide range of social and cultural processes, networks of photographic knowledge, science and technology, aesthetic, evidential and informational values and institutional practices.

Supervision will be available from Professor Elizabeth Edwards (DMU) and key members of British Museum staff who have active interests in photography, history, archaeology and collections history.  The studentship will be based at DMU Leicester, with extended London-based periods of study at the British Museum and related archives.  PHRC is a dynamic and growing research community. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the development of this community and that at the British Museum.

Candidates might come from a range of possible disciplines: archaeology (not necessarily Meso-American), art history, history of photography, science and technology studies, visual anthropology, and visual culture studies. A reading knowledge of Spanish would be an advantage.

For a more detailed description of the PHRC please visit our web site or contact Professor Edwards (eedwards@dmu.ac.uk) who will be happy to discuss the studentship further.

This research opportunity builds on DMU’s excellent past achievements and is looking forward to REF2014 and beyond. It will develop both the university’s and the British Museum’s research capacity into new and evolving areas of study, enhancing DMU’s national and international research partnerships.

Applications are invited from UK or eligible EU/overseas students  (see http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf Annex A) with a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) and MA in a relevant subject. The CDA scholarship is available for three years full-time study starting October 2012, providing a bursary for both maintenance  (currently c. £13,500) and fees.

To receive an application pack, please contact the Faculty Research Office via email at ADHresearch&innovation@dmu.ac.uk.  Completed applications should be returned together with a full CV, two supporting references, a statement explaining your interest in the project, and an example of your written work of c.3000 words.

Please quote ref: AHRC/CDA/PHRC12

CLOSING DATE: June 25^th 2012. Interview date: July 2^nd 2012

Media Space, delivered collaboratively by the Science Museum, London and the National Media Museum, Bradford, is the Science Museum’s new space for adults, opening in Spring 2013. It will present an engaging series of exhibitions, accompanied by a creative learning programme.

Media Space will allow audiences to explore old and new media across all technologies, their artistic and scientific outputs and implications, within a specially developed experimental gallery.

To support the development of this project, the museum is seeking a skilled and imaginative Audience and Programme Developer. 

9 month full-time fixed term contract. Freelance arrangements may also be considered.

Closing date Midnight Sunday 24 June  2012.  Interviews will be held at the Science Museum during week of 2nd July 2012.

Salary: £21,000 - £23,000 per annum pro rata

Purpose of the job

By conducting research into the needs, wants and expectations of the target audience, and building relationships with key organisations, institutions and individuals that reflect and engage them, you will develop and implement the creative learning programme for the first three seasons in Media Space.

The creative learning programme will focus particularly on engaging FE/HE students and their course leaders.

Key Deliverables/Accountabilities

1. An audience development strategy, based on evidence-based research, with which to build the FE/HE & culturally active independent adult audience, detailing the needs, wants and expectations of the target audience and the purposeful partnerships that form a route to this audience. This plan will be derived from face-to-face research, sectoral intelligence and desk-based findings
2. A fully-costed creative learning programme in support of the vision for Media Space, for the first three seasons, which would include main gallery exhibitions and studio/workshop displays, that has been shaped by the audience research conducted and delivers to the audience development strategy
3. Input into the decisions about the physical space and logistics in order to ensure that the spaces work for the audiences.
4. A costed plan for the resources necessary for the successful delivery of the creative learning programme over next 5 years, including existing Museum staff time and volunteers.
5. Develop a strong network, internally and externally, that increases the Museum’s knowledge of other sector-leading practice in the field of creative learning & programming for adults and initiates partnerships through which the future programme can be delivered.
6. To take care of personal health and safety and that of others and report any health and safety concerns.  Ensure proactive compliance with SMG H&S Policies, including risk assessments and implementing safe systems of work

Behaviours

• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Anticipate/recognise changes in circumstances and able to respond quickly and effectively.
• Outcome-focussed
• Professional, with proven ability to work on own and with a broad range of people especially external partners. 
• Able to effectively create buy-in for work being conducted, good communication with different team members.
• Able to work on own and as part of a multi-disciplinary team

Skills, Knowledge and Relevant Qualifications

• Experience of devising engaging creative learning programmes for adult audiences
• Knowledge of creative learning programming by major cultural organisations
• A practical understanding of the principles of audience development, gained through professional work i.e. formulating plans, identifying objectives, engaging with target audiences.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written
• Proven ability to devise and implement evaluation and research strategies
• Knowledge of policy and research in the fields of audience engagement; participation; museums & galleries; FE & HE; creative industries
• Understanding of how visitors learn in Museums and other free choice environments
• Understanding of audiences: their wants, needs, expectations

Working Relationships and Contacts

Internal

• With the Science Museum Head of Arts Projects and National Media Museum Curator of Photographs to ensure that that the creative learning programme fits with the overarching creative ethos of Media Space
• With the Project Leader and Head of Learning Resources & Outreach (line manager) to ensure planned programme can be resourced
• With the Head of Audience Research & Advocacy to ensure that the research strategy is robust and the resultant programme is suitable for target audience; and to ensure that learning is embedded in all aspects of the project
• With Head of Learning Resources & Outreach and Head of Audience Research & Advocacy to ensure learning input matches learning business plan and philosophy
• With the Project Leader to ensure high quality delivery on brief, on time and on budget
• With Project Leader to secure staff resource for activities
• With the project team and wider museum to share intelligence about targeted audience groups
• With web team and new media team to develop any digital activities
• With Marketing to develop a marketing strategy for the space
• With Finance/Management Accounts – to ensure effective use of resources
• With Learning Support Team Leader to agree logistics for group bookings

External

• To contribute to regular updates and reports to the gallery funders and other stakeholders
• With target audience and organisations/institutions that represent and engage them (e.g. independent adults; FE & HE sector; )
• To work with other major institutions that attract independent adult visitors, to explore potential collaboration
• With external contractors to deliver specified materials/workshops/learning products

Line Management and Budget Responsibility

Directly line manages: 0

Indirectly line manages: 0

Contractors/freelancers: 1-3 varying over the course of the project.

Scope for impact

• Media Space will be central to the strategy to grow the adult audience at the Science Museum and shape the perception of the Museum for these audiences
• Extending Science Museum reach and profile in engaging adults in a creative learning programme

Please note:

• This job description is not exhaustive and amendments and additions may be required in line with future changes in policy, regulation or organisational requirements, it will be reviewed on a regular basis.

Chiswick Auctions has a copy of Coburn's New York with a forward by H G Wells coming up on 12 June.  The detailed description is here: COBURN, Alvin Langdon (1882-1966, photographer). New York ... With a Foreword by H. G. Wells. London: Duckworth & Co., and New York: Brentano's, [1909]. Folio (408 x 308mm). Half title, 20 photogravure plates by Alvin Langdon Coburn, mounted on thick grey paper (some light spotting to text leaves, but photogravures unaffected). Original calf-backed grey paper boards, the upper cover lettered in gilt (some fading to gilt lettering, dampstain at corner, joints splitting, extremities rubbed), grey dust-jacket lettered in black (torn with some loss to backstrip). "The photogravures in this volume are from plates prepared by the artist, and printed under his personal supervision" (printed note beneath the List of Plates). "Posterity will owe much to Mr. Coburn, so that I hesitate to call the series of studies he has made of the beauty of contemporary cities the chief thing for which his memory will be honoured; but certainly his record of urban effects will be a greatly valued legacy" (from H. G. Wells' Foreword). The subjects of the photogravures are as folows: 1. The Metropolitan Tower. 2. Brooklyn Bridge, from a Roof-Top. 3. The Battery. 4. Williamsburg Bridge. 5. The Holland House. 6. Broadway at Night. 7. Brooklyn Bridge, from the River. 8. The Flat-Iron. 9. The Water Front. 10. The Singer Building, Noon. 11. The Ferry. 12. The Tunnel-Builders. 13. The Knickerbocker Trust Company. 14. The Chinese Quarter. 15. The Unfinished Bridge. 16. The Singer Building, Twilight. 17. The Stock Exchange. 18. Fifth Avenue, from The Regis. 19. The Sky-Line. 20. The Park Row Building. Truthful Lens 36.  Estimate: 5000-8000

For more information contact: http://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/catalogues/as120612/page7.html

The imminent move of the city’s photographic archive to a new purpose-built facility provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the complex interrelationship between photography, the archive and the city. It is with this in mind, and informed by debates about the changing nature of photography in the digital age, that Birmingham City University and Birmingham Central Library are collaborating to present a series of free, public conversations with some of the world’s leading photographers, curators, historians and theorists of photography to share their ideas and experiences of working with photography and the archive in order to situate local debates in a global context.

Monday 25th June 2012, 6.00pm 
Library Theatre, off Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ 
The Shadow of a Dark Horse in Low Light – Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin 

This talk will focus on the artists’ practice of working with and responding to historical photographs and collections. Broomberg and Chanarin explore the task of the artist to disturb the ordered categories of the archive, uncovering hidden gestures and narratives and reactivating cultural memory.

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin are artists living and working in London. Their latest book War Primer 2 is published by MACK (2011). They teach at the School of Visual Arts in New York, are Visiting Fellows at the University of the Arts London and will be running a semester at ZHdK in Zurich this autumn.

Thursday 28th June 2012, 6.00pm 
Library Theatre, off Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ 
On Becoming the Magnum Archive – Alison Nordström

The talk will examine the transition of the Magnum ‘picture library’ from its original status as a collec.on of images and a tool for doing business to a photographic ‘archive’ housed at the University of Texas. In doing so it tracks the parallel shift in thinking about photography that has taken place over recent decades, accompanied by the digital turn.

Alison Nordstrom is Curator of Photographs, George Eastman House, Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, New York. She has curated over 100 exhibitions of photography including major surveys of landscape, portraiture, travel photographs and journalism.

Joining Alison to discuss the issues raised in her talk will be Nick Galvin, former Archive Director, Magnum Photos, London

This series is organised by the Birmingham Photography and Archive Research Group, BIAD, Birmingham City University in conjunction with the photography archives at Birmingham Central Library. Further talks in the series are planned for Autumn 2012.

The National Media Museum, Bradford, has appointed Jo Quinton-Tulloch as its Head of Museum. Jo Quinton-Tulloch is currently the Head of Exhibitions at the Science Museum in London. She will take up her post in Bradford in September 2012. Jo has worked in museums for 18 years and has a wealth of experience in establishing successful exhibitions and programmes at the Science Museum, and also at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, in Falmouth.

Making the announcement, Heather Mayfield, Deputy Director of the Science Museum, said: “I am delighted that Jo has agreed to take on this role, in London and Falmouth she has led the delivery of world class exhibitions and programmes working with audiences, artists and curators. I look forward to seeing her using the National Media Museum collections in new and exciting ways.”

Jo will focus on building on the National Media Museum’s cultural programme and reputation, ensuring future success by maximising the impact of its vibrant exhibitions, events and activities. Her priority will be to ensure optimum public access to the National Collections held and cared for in Bradford, through the Museum’s displays, digital delivery and research.

In addition she will work with the Science Museum and National Media Museum to deliver the upcoming £4 million Media Space project. The Media Space will see the two institutions join forces to launch a major new permanent gallery in the Science Museum alongside a unique shared exhibition programme in Spring 2013.

Jo said: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work with such a significant collection and build on the existing programme to further establish the National Media Museum as an important cultural destination, locally and nationally. It’s a very exciting time to be part of the Museum and I’m looking forward to joining the team in September.”

The Head of Museum appointment has been made after Colin Philpott stepped down as Director of the National Media Museum following a senior level restructure of the parent organisation in December 2011.

Jo Quinton-Tulloch Biography

Jo Quinton-Tulloch has been Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at the Science Museum since 2004. During this time she has been responsible delivering exhibitions from small temporary shows such as Penicillin, to an up-grade of the Space gallery, through to the multi-million pound, award winningAtmosphere permanent gallery and associated climate changing programme.

Jo manages the innovative Art Programme which delivers artists’ projects in the Science Museum, including artist residencies and temporary exhibitions. She also oversees the programme of ‘Live Science’ activities which allow the public to meet scientists and take part in experiments on gallery, and the contemporary science team who deliver up-to-date news and programmes across many platforms.

Jo’s career in museums started when she joined the Science Museum as a part-time Explainer in 1994 while completing a Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College. During this time she was also a lecturer and joint course organiser for the Museum module of the MSc in Science Communication, Imperial College, and the Diploma in Science Communication, Birkbeck College.

She has worked at the Boston Museum of Science, USA, and between 2000 – 2004 she left the Science Museum to set up a brand new institution – the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Jo was responsible for the development and delivery of all galleries at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, and also established a framework for the collections management, documentation and restoration programmes, as well as managing the delivery of the Education, Special Exhibition and Lecture Theatre programmes.

Jo completed the Museum Leadership Programme at the University of East Anglia in 2001 and is about to attend the Museum Leadership Course run by the Getty Foundation in USA.

Bonhams Oxford is offering part of the photography collection of Harry Wills who died in 2011 aged 90. Wills was born and raised in Birmingham and was one of the earliest collectors of photographs and photographic equipment in Britain. He was a founder member of The Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group in 1972 and part of the first generation of British collectors and photographic historians. Pete James paid generous tribute to Wills in his obituary published in the April 2012 RPS Journal.

Although the provenance of the material in the material is not given by Bonhams the lots includes much of early British and Birmingham photographic interest as well as some of Wills' own photography (shown right). The photographs include material from W H F Talbot, Samuel Smith, Harold White, an extensive collection of topographic albums, cartes de visite and ambrotypes as well as early and rare photographically illustrated books.

The sale begins at 10.30am on 26 June and is on view from 23-26 June. 

For more information about the lots see: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20138/

The fate of the rest of Wills' extensive photography collection and his equipment  collection has not been disclosed. 

On Tuesday 3 April 2012, the Library of Birmingham launched Reference Works: a major photography commission in which four leading photographers will make visual responses to the current Central Library building and to the build, transition and relocation to the new Library of Birmingham.

Established by Birmingham City Council to reflect and record this momentous event in the city’s cultural history, the project – supported by the Arts Council - represents the largest and most significant photography commission ever undertaken in Birmingham. The resulting works will go on display in the new Library of Birmingham when it opens in 2013.

The four commissioned photographers are Michael Collins, Brian Griffin, Andrew Lacon and Stuart Whipps. Three of the artists will focus on the buildings and their contents, while one, Brian Griffin, will focus on portraits of people linked to the building project. The work of all four photographers will be shown in the first exhibition in the new Library of Birmingham Gallery in September 2013. There will also be a related exhibition of photographs drawn from the Library’s internationally renowned archives charting the history of Birmingham’s libraries and an accompanying book. Some of the work will also be presented on digital displays and interactive screens built into the fabric of the new Library of Birmingham..

The Library of Birmingham is also working in partnership with Birmingham City University to manage and deliver a mentoring programme linked to the large scale commission. Five new and emerging artists will be mentored by the leading photographers and project managers over an 18 month period to enhance their professional practice, knowledge and skills. The young photographers will also make individual bodies of work about the old and new library buildings that will be exhibited in conjunction with the main gallery show.

Brian Gambles, Assistant Director of Culture at Birmingham Library and Archive Services, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to launch this commission which will record a great moment in Birmingham’s history, celebrating the new library building and the people who make it happen. These new photographs, taken by illustrious artists, will serve as a great record for the people of Birmingham for generations to come. We are also pleased to be able to nurture new photographic talent through our collaboration with Birmingham City University, and we look forward to welcoming visitors through the library’s doors to see the photographs of all these artists on show in 2013.”

Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Library and Archive Services, said: “We’re really excited about Reference Works, which is the largest and most significant photography commission project yet undertaken in Birmingham. The differing approaches employed by the four commissioned photographers will give a richness and diversity to the project, enabling current and future generations to explore this historical moment from a variety of creative perspectives. The new works by Michael Collins, Brian Griffin, Andrew Lacon and Stuart Whipps will be tremendous additions to our collection. We are confident that the work will be significant not only to us, but to other photography institutions and collections at home and abroad, and that touring the show will help cement Birmingham’s place as an international centre for photography.”

Reference Works has been made possible with the help of a £62,000 grant from Arts Council of England and partnership support from Birmingham City University. Further sponsorship for the project has come from Capita Symonds, Carillion, Mecanoo and The Flash Centre, Birmingham.

The commission is led by Birmingham Library and Archives Services’ Photography Department who have a successful record commissioning contemporary photography, curating exhibitions, developing private and public sector partnerships, and managing the institutions massive historical photography archive. In 2006 the archive was awarded Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in recognition of its national and international importance. The department has an established track record of commissioning and acquiring new creative photography about the city and this project is another example of this vital work.

At a recent auction a Victorian walnut cased table top achromatic stereoscope by Smith Beck and Beck complete with approximately 260 card mounted slides and 10 glass slides, was the subject of a frenzied bidding war between numerous telephone and internet bidders. It was sold to a New Jersey America buyer for £6900 almost seven times the upper estimate at Dee Atkinson & Harrison in Driffield. 

Dr Lynn Pearson is researching the image shown here which has been attributed to W H F Talbot and does not appear to have been previously reproduced. The image shows Collins's Brewery in Water Lane, Richmond, probably 1840s.It is in the David Parry collection, part of the Brewery History Society collection, so it is just the cutting, stuck on a card with a few details about the brewery. Nothing to say where either the photo or the cutting came from. Parry has added a caption saying the photo is by Fox Talbot. 

Is any reader about to confirm the attribution?

As BPH reported in 2009 De Montfort University had been given the remaining portion of the Kodak Research Library which had been based at Kodak Ltd's premises at Harrow. The company's archives are at the British Library. At an informal ceremony this week attended by Sam Weller and Chris Roberts both formerly of Kodak De Montfort University's Kimberlin Library showed off the Kodak library newly installed in its purpose-built Special Collections area. 

The Kodak material is particularly strong in runs of British, European and American photographic journals.As one would expect it also includes some limited material relating to Kodak but the majority of Kodak's own publications are held as part of the Kodak Historical Collection at the British Library,  The DMU material has been catalogued and is available through the online library catalogue. The library's catalogue search facility can be found here. Use 'Kodak Collection' in the keyword field to browse all titles or search for specific titles.  

It is worth giving some context to the material that is now at DMU. Chris Roberts was actively involved in saving the library from being dispersed or destroyed. He notes that the material at DMU is only a small fraction of what had originally been at Kodak in Harrow, as an urgent decision had to be taken regarding what to 'rescue '.  He writes: "I had only a short time to move selected books from the Library to the Archive before the remainder was thrown away! You can imagine my horror in seeing the notice that the Library was to be first offered to members of the Research Laboratory and the remainder disposed of.  It all happened quite quickly. Hope Kingsley helped me to move the books and although I offered whatever we had to the Universities of Westminster and Middlesex they did not have the finance or the room for any more books." Roger Taylor promoted the interest of DMU and this resulted in the agreement between the BL, DMU and Kodak. Sadly this is not an usual story - many company libraries have been destroyed and photo-historians should be grateful that as much was saved as possible. 

The Kodak Collection in the Special Collections areas is open to members of the public usually between Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 4pm or by appointment. The library archivist is Linda Butt who can be reached on +44 (0)116 250 6392 or email: lbutt@dmu.ac.uk. 

De Montfort University's Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC) celebrated it's first anniversary on Thursday. Professor Elizabeth Edwards, the Centre's Director, gave her professorial lecture and launched her new book The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination, 1885–1918.

Durign the evening Gerard Moran, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities, announced that Professor Stephen Brown had been awarded a £390,000 AHRC two year research grant to look at  'fuzzy photographs'; Elizabeth Edwards had been awarded an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with the British Museum and that Kelley Wilder had been appointed a visiting professor at the University of Zürich. 

The Centre has also launched the first issue of its newsletter - a copy can be downloaded here: PHRC Newsletter No 1 April 2012  

More on the PHRC and its activities can be found here.

Photo right: Roger Taylor, Elizabeth Edwards, Kelley Wilder and Stephen Brown cut the first birthday cake of the PHRC.  Below: Visitors, students and staff gathering before Elizabeth Edwards' professorial lecture. © Michael Pritchard. 

Terry King & Hands-On Pictures in Richmond have a number of upcoming workshops: Niepce and Wedgwood on 12 & 13 June focuses on making prints on metal using asphaltum also known as ' bitumen of Judea'.  It will use two different methods, the first will produce a straight photograph in asphaltum, the second will produce an image using asphaltum which will result in a plate having the  same qualities as 'The First Photograph' in the 'Harry Ransom Center' in Austin. The group will experiment  by combining  asphaltum and aquatint to produce an image in ink on paper and will also make prints onto leather in the style of Thomas Wedgwood as described in his 1804 paper to the Royal Institution. The cost of the workshop will be £250.

Cyanotype and Cyanotype Rex Terry King and the team at Hands-On Pictures will be running two two-day workshops, the first on 6 & 7 June and the second on 12 & 13 July, covering the beauty of tone and gradation that can be got from the straight cyanotype process on a number of materials. The group will also pursue toning techniques and Terry King’s cyanotype rex process, a development that allows split toning into subtle blues, greys and ochres.  The philosophy of the workshops is that we should use the simplest methods to achieve the best effects in picture making. The cost will be £250.

Platinum and Palladium. In July Terry King and the team at the Hands-On Pictures studio in Richmond are giving two different Platinum and Palladium workshops, one using digital negatives and the other film negatives from large format cameras. Each workshop is limited to six people. The most beautiful photographic prints have been made using the platinum process. The tactility and subtlety of these prints, made on fine art papers, transcend what is possible with other processes. The first workshop from 10 30 AM to 5 30 PM on 7 & 8 July will cover making large format film negatives exposed and developed to produce the wide density range needed to produce the beautiful contrast and gradation for which the platinum print is renowned. The workshop will include taking photographs on large format cameras. The cost will be £250. The second workshop, will be from 10 30 AM to 5 30 PM on 28 & 29 July. The group will make digital negatives together with Peter Moseley. We will adjust curves to give negatives of the necessary density range to produce platinum prints similar to those produced from film. The negatives will be made from scans or digital files which students may bring them. The cost will be £250.

More information is at: www.hands-on-pictures.com or email: terryaking@me.com

Birmingham's Ikon Gallery is proposing a new museum of photography in the city centre's Curzon Street station building. The proposal document states: 'The Curzon Street railway station building, with its impressive classical entrance facing into the centre of Curzon Square, will become Birmingham’s new Museum of Photography, drawing from the extensive collection of the new Library of Birmingham. As well as temporary exhibitions, it will provide displays of local history especially reflective of the people of Birmingham'. Realisation of the scheme would take place over ten years and would also see the relocation of a national art collection as part of the project.

Source magazine spoke to Peter James in its latest issue (Spring 2012) . James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library welcomed the proposal. However, according to Source which also spoke to Ikon's deputy director Deborah Kermode, the Ikon proposal would see Birmingham Central Library divested of its photography collections which would move to the new museum. At which point James might be less welcoming of the idea especially as the new Birmingham Library due to open in Summer 2013 will be giving the photography collections better storage conditions and a greater prominence than hitherto.   

Source magazine has more on this - click here.

Update: Helen Stallard of Ikon has contacted BPH to update the report above. Helen advises that the Ikon proposal is not to divest Birmingham Central Library of its photography collection. Ikon looks forward to the opening of the new Library of Birmingham which will provide much improved environmental conditions for photographic storage. She notes that the Libray's photography collection "does not have a dedicated gallery, which is where the partnership between the Library and Ikon primarily will bear fruit. The proposed museum of photography will provide a showcase for the collection, freely accessible to the general public".

Ikon is taking the first steps in a long proces with many issues of management and strategy to be resolved. She says: "It is our conviction that the success of the project overall will arise out of vital partnerships and good will (in abundance) between the various institutions involved".  

BPH looks forward to reporting on progress over the coming years.

A one-day symposium on pivotal role of one family in nineteenth century life. From the history of science to literary criticism, this interdisciplinary event explores the Dillwyn family’s contributions to: Anti-Slavery and transatlantic trade, nineteenth century science and ground-breaking early photography, feminist literature and pioneering industrial fiction, nation-building politics and the relationship between science and culture. 

Speakers include Professor Prys Morgan, Professor Chris Evans and Professor Iwan Morus.

22 June 2012, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

See: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/events/dillwyn-day-science-culture-society-1